California Attorney General expected to announce senate bid

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Attorney General Kamala Harris is expected to announce on Tuesday that she will run to replace retiring U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer in 2016, local media reported.

The Los Angeles Times, citing an anonymous Harris adviser, reported on its website on Monday that she would announce her campaign to run for Democrat Boxer's seat on Tuesday.

Requests for comment to Harris and her representatives were not immediately returned.

Boxer's departure, announced last week, is the first of three anticipated retirements among California's top leaders that should pave the way for a younger generation of politicians who have been waiting in the wings.

Governor Jerry Brown, 76, will have to leave office when his fourth term ends in 2018 because of term limits. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, 81, will be 85 when her term ends.

California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, whose support for same-sex marriage while mayor of San Francisco kicked off a wave of social and political change, on Monday said he would not run.

His announcement leaves the field open to a host of potential candidates, including Harris, 50, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, both Democrats.

Harris, who, like Newsom, hails from the San Francisco political scene, is a former district attorney who has used her position to develop policy ideas as well as handle prosecutions.

Of African-American and South Asian descent, she is the daughter of two college professors and grew up during the civil rights turmoil of the 1960s in the Bay Area.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacremento; Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Alison Williams)